The Myth of Israeli Aggression

The old David & Goliath model has now been reversed -- with Palestinians as the pitied underdog.

MYTH: The fact that a majority of deaths are Palestinians, makes them the victim and Israel the aggressor.

FACT: "Aggressor" implies that Israel is somehow responsible for initiating the violence. In fact, the Palestinians have created the climate of violence.

Within months of the Oslo agreement of 1993, Arafat gave a speech in South Africa promising jihad for Jerusalem, a call he has consistently repeated in the Arabic press. Today, the Palestine Authority's official maps and children's textbooks treat Israel as nonexistent -- and show the Palestinian state stretching all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. The PLO Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.

The Palestinian violence is fueled in part by Islamic doctrine. The Koran calls for "eviction by the sword" of any non-Moslem entity holding sovereignty over land in the Arabian Peninsula. In other words, annihilation of the Jews is an Islamic religious obligation, hence the term jihad-- "holy war.'

In fact, official Palestinian TV, radio and newspapers have urged people to blood and martyrdom. The day before an Israeli soldier was dragged through the streets of Ramallah tied to the back of an automobile, official Palestinian TV depicted the scene of a mannequin tied and dragged by an automobile.

SERMON FROM THE MOSQUE

Following is excerpt of a sermon broadcast live on October 13, 2000 by the official Palestinian Authority television. The speaker is Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiya, Member of the PA appointed "Fatwa Council" and former acting Rector of the Islamic University in Gaza:

"O brother believers, the criminals, the terrorists are the Jews, who have butchered our children, orphaned them, widowed our women and desecrated our holy places and sacred sites. They are the terrorists. They are the ones who must be butchered and killed, as Allah the Almighty said: Fight them: Allah will torture them at your hands...

"This is the truth, O Brothers in belief. From here, Allah the almighty has called upon us not to ally with the Jews or the Christians, not to like them, not to become their partners, not to support them, and not to sign agreements with them...

"Even if an agreement for Gaza is signed, we shall not forget Haifa, and Acre, and the Galilee, and Jaffa, and the Triangle and the Negev, and the rest of our cities and villages. It is only a matter of time...

"Have no mercy on the Jews, no matter where they are, in any country. Fight them, wherever you are. Wherever you meet them, kill them. Wherever you are, kill those Jews and those Americans who are like them..."

VIOLATION OF ACCORDS

Throughout the current wave of violence, Arafat has refused to call on his people to stop the rioting, shooting and firebombing. This is in direct violation of the Oslo Accords and other signed agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. For example:

- Commitment to the peaceful resolution of the conflict and that outstanding permanent status issues will be resolved through negotiations (Arafat's Letter to Rabin, September 9, 1993).

- Abstention from incitement, including hostile propaganda and adoption of legal measures to prevent such incitement (Interim Agreement, Article XXII).

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Visitor Comments: 5

(5)
Anonymous,
November 19, 2012 4:26 AM

Isreali agression

Our damaged, adoptive kids keep acting out!
What to do??
They don't respect bounderies...are selfish brats....
can't learn to get along with others...It's hard to be friends
with people ~ in it ~ for themselves!!!!

(4)
Anonymous,
May 12, 2010 7:52 AM

A People without a voice of reason

It just shows that people who follow 7th century beliefs cannot exist in the 21st century. The Palestine and its Arab allies are just wasting themselves, wasting their lives and wasting their souls. It's not surprising why they remain as one of the most backward regions on the face of the earth.
If only they would put down their guns and see the truth.

(3)
Benyamin Solomon,
April 14, 2010 4:46 AM

Great article

This article gets right to the point. I strongly recommend it. It shows the truth about how terroristic Palestinians have violated the agreements they signed and went to war with Israel.

(2)
G S Solot,
July 10, 2001 12:00 AM

Some people don't want the facts.

If you have an open mind, the information provided will be invaluable!

(1)
Anonymous,
May 23, 2001 12:00 AM

Finally I found a source of information

Hi, Finally I found a source of information I can use against anti-Israel propaganda, I will appreciate if you have more articles with statistics and some Arafat terror history.
Thanks

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I've been striving to get more into spirituality. But it seems that every time I make some progress, I find myself slipping right back to where I started. I'm getting discouraged and feel like a failure. Can you help?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Spiritual slumps are a natural part of spiritual growth. There is a cycle that people go through when at times they feel closer to God and at times more distant. In the words of the Kabbalists, it is "two steps forward and one step back." So although you feel you are slipping, know that this is a natural process. The main thing is to look at your overall progress (over months or years) and be able to see how far you've come!

This is actually God's ingenious way of motivating us further. The sages compare this to teaching a baby how to walk. When the parent is holding on, the baby shrieks with delight and is under the illusion that he knows how to walk. Yet suddenly, when the parent lets go, the child panics, wobbles and may even fall.

At such times when we feel spiritually "down," that is often because God is letting go, giving us the great gift of independence. In some ways, these are the times when we can actually grow the most. For if we can move ourselves just a little bit forward, we truly acquire a level of sanctity that is ours forever.

Here is a practical tool to help pull you out of the doldrums. The Sefer HaChinuch speaks about a great principle in spiritual growth: "The external awakens the internal." This means that although we may not experience immediate feelings of closeness to God, eventually, by continuing to conduct ourselves in such a manner, this physical behavior will have an impact on our spiritual selves and will help us succeed. (A similar idea is discussed by psychologists who say: "Smile and you will feel happy.")

That is the power of Torah commandments. Even if we may not feel like giving charity or praying at this particular moment, by having a "mitzvah" obligation to do so, we are in a framework to become inspired. At that point we can infuse that act of charity or prayer with all the meaning and lift it can provide. But if we'd wait until being inspired, we might be waiting a very long time.

May the Almighty bless you with the clarity to see your progress, and may you do so with joy.

In 1940, a boatload 1,600 Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler's ovens was denied entry into the port of Haifa; the British deported them to the island of Mauritius. At the time, the British had acceded to Arab demands and restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. The urgent plight of European Jewry generated an "illegal" immigration movement, but the British were vigilant in denying entry. Some ships, such as the Struma, sunk and their hundreds of passengers killed.

If you seize too much, you are left with nothing. If you take less, you may retain it (Rosh Hashanah 4b).

Sometimes our appetites are insatiable; more accurately, we act as though they were insatiable. The Midrash states that a person may never be satisfied. "If he has one hundred, he wants two hundred. If he gets two hundred, he wants four hundred" (Koheles Rabbah 1:34). How often have we seen people whose insatiable desire for material wealth resulted in their losing everything, much like the gambler whose constant urge to win results in total loss.

People's bodies are finite, and their actual needs are limited. The endless pursuit for more wealth than they can use is nothing more than an elusive belief that they can live forever (Psalms 49:10).

The one part of us which is indeed infinite is our neshamah (soul), which, being of Divine origin, can crave and achieve infinity and eternity, and such craving is characteristic of spiritual growth.

How strange that we tend to give the body much more than it can possibly handle, and the neshamah so much less than it needs!